Our Inquiry Unit Morning viewing in Room 7 and Game Fun in Room 8

Here we are watching the video that Christian had put together on his netbook. We saw how they did Maori tattooing. After that we did lots of looking in groups at the other children's netbooks.

Here we are using the spinners in Room 7 Woow look our parents are having great fun too. We all got to have a turn.

Here one of the clever students from Room 7 is showing us how to begin using the other spinner and she told us how we could make them too.

We are doing the stick games. They were so much fun and Mrs S turned on the tape and we did it in time to the Music. We all had a turn on our rotations.
We also played knuckle bones so we were kept really busy trying so many new games....we had real kucklebones here but in our class we had collected stones.
Our parents joined in with us too. They were really enjoying their day too. We love it when our parents come and see all our interesting activities.

Our Maori Inquiry Unit viewing in Room 4

Here in Room 1 Mrs Kelly is showing us a flax skirt that Whaea Grace has given her. It was over 55 years old. It was beautiful and  traditional. We also saw all their weaving. They had made some flowers with Whaea Grace and they showed us a video of their weaving. We also played a fabulous whispering game. The game was heaps of fun We were in four lines. Mrs Kelly whispered a word to the person at the end of the line and they whispered it to the person in front and this whispering went to the front of the line. When the word reached the person in the front of the line, they had to hop up and choose that word which was written out and was on the table. It was great fun We thought Mrs Kelly was so clever to think up a game like that.

Our Maori Inquiry Unit Walkabout

On Wednesday, yesterday we had a walk through all our rooms. We learnt about  some of the work they had been doing in our Maori Inquiry Unit. It was lots of fun participating in different activities.

Here we are in Room 2 watching their video on Poi dances and Poi Making. It was fun. We know how to make a Poi now. We also watched them do the Haka.

Clever Litia

Litia was doing her story writing she looked around the room and found some words that she needed.
Great work Litia Keep looking around our room for all those words that you can use.Fantastic!!Well done!!!

Patterns with Whai

I think my pattern is great. It was hard to put my hands through the string but I did it.
by Newsam

At first I found this hard but I kept trying
Some of my friends helped me. I threaded the string through my first finger and my end finger -my little finger-and the string was at the front of my hand which I could thread
my fingers through..........by Danny











I did my pattern over and over again. It was good fun I want to try some new patterns
by Paul










                                                                

I am trying to fit my fingers through the string to make a zigzag shape.
By Whaiora

Whaiora, Mrs Greenham said "Well done Whaiora You are concentrating very hard .Great work"

String games/ Whai

String game playing is called "Whai" in the Maori Language. I have just made the first part of my shape here. We have lots of fun doing this.
By Litia

Vainikolo playing koruru

I am trying to scoop up the little stones. Toss and pick up.
By Vainikolo

Maori Games and Activities

In our class we have been learning some Maori Games and practicing them.

Here is Charlie with his knuckle bones -koruru. We had all collected little stones from outside, just as the Maori children would have done all those years ago. It was fun but we are not finding it easy "Here I am and I have got them all on my hand after a little toss" says Charlie. Mrs Greenham thinks we are pretty good but we still need lots of practising.

Our Visit to the Museum

AT THE MUSEUM When we went to the Museum we had some parents to help us, Mr Plessius, Mrs Mataroa and Ms Berry. 

We left school at 9 o’clock. On the bus we had to share seats but it was great fun. When we got to the Museum we had to wait in the Atrium. Here we are eating a small morning tea before we went to the Meeting House.

It was important to take our shoes off to go into the meeting house. We learnt about the parts of the meeting house the kowhaiwhai patterns on the roof and the tukutuku panels and how the Meeting House has carvings from wood and the tukutuku panels have designs made from flax. The flax is like string. The bigcarved panels tell a story about Grand-parents and they are called “Popo”

In the meeting house we learnt about all the different parts and practised the Haka.

       

Here Mr Plessius is helping us with the spinner. They also used a hammer-axe to do the carving. It was made with a stone and bound to the stick with string.

It was exciting doing an action song and interesting looking at the boats that brought the Maoris to Aotearoa –they first saw the long white cloud and so it is called the Land of the Long White Cloud-which is the meaning of Aotearoa.

In the display cases were baskets and other tools and clothes from the islands. There were lots of display cases with many displays.